Minding business pays off for Romney

BOSTON, Mass. — Mitt Romney built a fortune by taking over troubled companies and making the tough business decisions and shrewd financial adjustments to turn them into winning investments for himself and investors in his firm, Bain Capital.

In similar ways, Romney is applying the same tactics in his quest to win the 2008 Republican Party primary and the White House.

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And, as we enter the final push before primary votes are cast, Romney has accomplished a remarkable objective: He has gone from being a little-known governor of a liberal-leaning Democratic state to the leading Republican candidate in public opinion polls in both critical early-primary states, New Hampshire and Iowa.

In other words, by historic measures, Romney is better-positioned to win the nomination than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson — both of whom are trouncing him in national surveys.

Which raises the question: How did he get here?

A visit to his Boston headquarters overlooking the Charles River provides some clues.

The first thing that hits you is that it is not the typical paper-strewn, crowded, chaotic political headquarters. The lobby is furnished with faux suede chairs and a couch. The walls are decorated with pictures of Romney meeting troops and of his father, George, sitting in the Oval Office with President Richard Nixon.

It’s an interior design reflecting the private-public partnership that runs through the Romney operation: the investors and businessmen who know Romney from his Bain Capital days who today are teamed up with the professional political strategists from Washington.

As in the private sector, the key to success is spotting opportunity early, sharply analyzing strengths and weaknesses, developing a blueprint for success, and having enough money to get the job done.

Romney brought all those skills to the table. The most important one now is the built-in financial advantage that comes from his willingness to dip into his personal wealth, valued at $190 million to $250 million. To date, 27 percent of Romney’s receipts have come from his own pocket.

In the first nine months of this year, Romney raised $45 million from individuals for his primary bid — more than any of his rivals — and loaned $17.5 million to it. His total of $62.5 million in primary election contributions beats the second-place finisher, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, by more than $20 million.

More important, though, Romney’s willingness to spend his own cash has made the normally significant cash-on-hand advantage of his rivals meaningless. Already his adversaries are fretting over just how much he is prepared to lend his campaign in the critical final quarter.

By the time they find out, it will likely be too late. The release of the fourth-quarter report is Jan. 30, 2008. That comes after Iowa, after New Hampshire, after South Carolina, after Nevada and after Florida.

“Now it’s all about having readily available cash,” said Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance expert at Colby College. “Romney has the greatest capacity to generate readily available cash because he’s dealing with a donor of one.”